Astrophysics

Our Nearest Neighbor Might Harbor Its Own Solar System

New data from Proxima Centauri shows it has a ring of cold dust—a sign that many planets may orbit the distant star

An artist's impression shows two tiny but very dense neutron stars at the point at which they merge and explode as a kilonova.

What the Neutron Star Collision Means for Dark Matter

The latest LIGO observations rekindle a fiery debate over how gravity works: Does the universe include dark matter, or doesn’t it?

Stephen Hawking with Isaac Newton's annotated copy of Principia Mathematica

Stephen Hawking's PhD Thesis Goes Online, Crashing Internet Servers

After less than a day on the internet, it racked up 60,000 downloads

An illustration of two neutron stars merging, ejecting gamma ray streams and clouds of matter that produce heavy elements and light

Scientists Spot the Spark From Ancient Collision of Neutron Stars

The chirp and flash from the event offers clues to the origin of Earth's precious metals

Artist's depiction of a pulsar.

World's Largest Radio Telescope Spies Its First Pulsars

Still in its trial run, the China's FAST radio telescope has already identified two new pulsars and perhaps a dozen more

The remnant's of Kepler's supernova imaged with modern instruments.

How a 1604 Supernova Presented a Challenge to Astronomers

The supernova provided proof to Galileo, Kepler and others that the heavens were not fixed–although they were wrong about what caused the bright star

A triple solar flare recorded in April, 2017

Could a Magnetic Shield Protect Earth From Space Weather?

A bad geomagnetic storm would fry the electric grid and cripple civilization for years—a space shield is cheap by comparison

Three Scientists Behind the Detection of Gravitational Waves Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics

The trio is the leading force behind the massive pair of detectors that can measures ripples in the fabric of space-time smaller than the width of a proton

An artist's impression of ripples in the fabric of space-time formed from the collision of two black holes.

Scientists Detect Fourth Gravitational Wave, Homing in on an Ancient Black Hole Collision

By triangulating measurements, scientists could soon detect these once elusive energy bursts on a weekly basis with greater precision than ever before

This 1846 map of the solar system includes Vulcan as the planet closest to the sun.

Why Everyone Went on a Wild Goose Chase Looking for the Planet Vulcan

The idea of a ninth planet in the Solar System would resolve a mathematical conundrum about Mercury–only problem is, it wasn't there

Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia

Astronomers Detect 15 Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts From a Distant Galaxy

The new cosmic blasts may help researchers finally figure out what's producing the energy in space

The image of Antares captures by VLTI

This Is the Best Image of a Star Beyond Our Solar System (Yet)

A detailed convection map of the red supergiant Antares is spectacular, but it also shows we don't know everything that's going on

The Small Magellanic Cloud, where some of your atoms likely originate

Half of Our Atoms May Come From Other Galaxies

According to computer simulations, large galaxies may grow by sucking in matter smaller star clusters expel

An artist's rendering of a star colliding with the surface of a supermassive sphere. In recent years some scientists have surmised that black holes may be hard objects rather than a region of intense gravity and compressed matter.

Could You Crash Into a Black Hole?

Probably not, but it’s fun to think about

Astronomers Find the Smallest Star Yet

The faint orb is just a smidgen bigger than Saturn and around 2,000 to 3,000 times dimmer than our own sun

Behold, ALMA's image of Betelgeuse

Detailed Images of a Distant Star Hold Clues to Its Ultimate Fate

Sitting some 640 light years from our planet, the star Betelgeuse is on the verge of supernova

Auroras on Uranus caused by changes in its magnetosphere

Magnetic Field Around Uranus Are a Chaotic Mess

Using data from the Voyager 2 mission, researchers have modeled Uranus's off-kilter magnetosphere

A young padawan asks astrophysicist Erin Macdonald a question at a Future Con panel. This year, Smithsonian's Future Con took place as a special programming track within Awesome Con, leading to a number of serendipitous moments like this.

When Cutting-Edge Science Meets Science Fiction, It Packs the House

At Future Con, fans of sci-fi, fantasy and comics met the researchers and engineers who are bringing their stories to life

A simulation of the large-scale structure of the universe

We May Live in a Massive Cosmic Void

If the universe were a block of Swiss cheese, the Milky Way would sit within one of the cheesy holes

Artist’s conception of two merging black holes, spinning in a nonaligned fashion.

Scientists Hear Two Even More Ancient Black Holes Collide

At this point, detecting ripples in the fabric of space-time is practically commonplace

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